Fabio Besta: il padre della ragioneria moderna

Fabio Besta, Professor at Ca’ Foscari for almost fifty years, was the best-known and most eminent figure among the Italian accounting scholars. His pivotal contribution to the development of the subject encompassed the upgrading shift of accounting from technique to theory, his equity-based accounting system to be applied to the double-entry bookkeeping as well as the related ‘value-based’ accounting theory, the introduction of a new conception of business firm and combination of inductive (empirical) and historical research method. The school he founded deserves credits. Fabio Besta’s pupils would be the most relevant scholars of the following period, that is Vittorio Alfieri, Alberto Ceccherelli, Carlo Ghidiglia, Pietro D’Alvise, Francesco De Gobbis, Benedetto Lorusso, Pietro Rigobon, Vincenzo Vianello and Gino Zappa.